Book review: Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly

Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly

Greta & Valdin – Rebecca R Reilly (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)

Reviewed by Louise Ward, Wardini Books

Greta and Valdin Vladisavljevic are siblings in their 20s, flatting together in Auckland.

Nearby are their brother Lavrenti, their parents, their uncles. It's a big messy, complicated family with absolutely everything going on.

The novel is narrated in chapters alternating between Greta and Valdin. Greta is a student and English tutor, attracted to a colleague; she goes on dates that end badly or don't begin at all until she stumbles across Ell who will change everything. Greta is clever, vain, anxious about her family in general and Valdin in particular.

Valdin is also anxious, pining for Xabi, his lost love and the brother of his uncle's husband (yep, it's complicated). He's a physicist turned TV presenter, inadvertently funny, definitely OCD. His perceptions thwart him and make communication tricky.

The Vladisavljevic family are a perfect storm of personalities. Papa Linsh and Uncle Thony are Russian, Thony's husband Giuseppe (and his brother Xabi) are Catalonian, Greta and Valdin's mother, Betty, is Māori, estranged from her whānau on Aotea Great Barrier Island.

Lavrenti is known as Caspar, because he's pale as a ghost – his wife is the other Greta. Our protagonists long to know things: who they are, how they fit. Greta eavesdrops, but it will be Valdin who finds things out.

This whole big stew of a story is a joyful examination of love in its many forms. The siblings are close and tease, mock and support one another as only unconditional love allows.

Linsh is delightfully eccentric, Betty fiercely in control, Caspar trying his best, Greta and Valdin trying to hold themselves together in a world as bright and beguiling as they are.

This is a wonder of a novel, its dialogue is sharp and witty, its characters recognisable. I cared deeply for the whole of this crazy family. It's also shortlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.